Weekend trip to Vancouver

Peace Arch Border Crossing

This past weekend the Eason Family (sans Diesel and Oscar) headed north to Canada!! We had a nice relaxing weekend in Vancouver. It worked out great to pick up Brent at his office in the city around lunchtime to try to make it to Vancouver before dinner.

Finally crossing the bridge to downtown Vancouver

FREEDOM!!!

The crossing and tunnel in to Vancouver took a little longer than we expected and our 2.5 hour trip turned in to 3.5 hours, but we did make it there before dinner. We grabbed some take out from a local restaurant and headed back to our hotel just to relax and get ready for the next day.

View from our hotel room

Our hotel had a nice location - southern part of downtown Vancouver. I had intentions of walking to the sites, but due to the cold weather (we were originally supposed to vacation here in October), we drove to most places.

After a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel, included in our stay, we packed the car to head to Gastown.

Gastown Steam Clock with Vancouver's Lookout Tower in the background

 Brock has been fascinated by steam lately (pouring hot water in to the sink for pasta, etc) so I thought he would like this. This steam clock was built in 1977 to solve the issue of a steam vent in a popular sidewalk for the renovated Gastown district. It chimes every quarter hour and counts the hours in "steam whistles" every full hour.

Brent was so captivated by the steam clock as well; he walked in the Starbucks next door and ordered us all hot cocoa. :)

Next stop was the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park.

The museum was a little pricey as we stayed less than two hours, but Brock enjoyed it. He loves watching the fish. He's going to be a little fisherman like his Daddy and Grandpa Eason!

 

"Oooooh"

Hands down our favorite part of the aquarium was the Amazon section (tropical rainforest). It was WARM!! There were parrots and ducks and fish and supposedly butterflies, but we did not see any.

Here's a little movie with Brock watching the birds.

After this, Brock was ready for his nap, so after we bundled him all up and put a blanket over the stroller, he unfortunately missed the entire outdoor section with beluga whales, dolphins, sea lions and otters. He would have really enjoyed the otters - they were so close to the glass!

Taking a nap

Brent and I walked around a bit more to let Brock sleep and then it was time for lunch. We drove around Stanley Park and got some great views of the city! It was really too bad it was so cold and wintry. I do remember the park from the last time my family came here (especially the totem poles) and how everything was so colorful.

We probably were a little late with having lunch....why Brock is very upset at this moment. Brock's kid's meal was so cute, we had to take a picture. Macaroni and cheese with steamed broccoli in a pirate boat!

Then it was back to the hotel for a nap for all of us before dinner. Dinner was wonderful at Frankie's Italian Kitchen and even better that we were able to enjoy the city lights and people and walk there from the hotel.

Brock playing with the Gummi Bear package (only the package, no gummis for him yet!)

After a quick breakfast on Sunday, we were back on the road to return home to 2 inches of snow! It sounded like Diesel and Oscar had a great time playing with the other dogs in the snow! It was a lot of driving and sitting in traffic crossing the border, but it was a really nice weekend away as a family.